“Here’s what greets you when you take the lid off the retail box of Honor 7 ”

There’s a myriad of smartphone brands in India right now and every now and then a new contender shows up. Of the various brands that debut in the Indian smartphone market, only a few offer innovative and noteworthy devices. One such brand is the Huawei-owned Honor. Last year, the company got its big share of limelight with the launch of its flagship, the Honor 6 (review) and only a while ago, the market saw the arrival of an upgrade to the same, dubbed the Honor 6 Plus (FAQs | camera review). Now the brand’s back in the arena with a new flagship challenger, the Honor 7 (first impressions). With significantly upgraded specs and design elements over its predecessors, the Honor 7 has made quite an entry and if you’re keen about what the device ships with…here’s a quick unboxing.

The Honor 7 arrives in a deep sky blue box which sports a fine snakeskin texture. While the box looks a little tacky, the smartphone inside exudes class. The Honor 7 is a premium looking device and is a major upgrade to the Honor 6 and Honor 6 Plus in terms of the design. You won’t be able to help but notice the device’s aluminium alloy unibody architecture, chamfered edges and the fingerprint sensor on the back, which is a new addition to the spec list. There’s also a Smart Key on the left spine of the smartphone, another new inclusion, which is customisable, giving you control over what action it performs on a single press, double press or a long press.

The Honor 7 rests on top of a plastic tray, beneath which there’s a SIM-ejector tool and some nicely packed documentation. The ejectable tray on the smartphone takes in both the micro-SIM and the microSD card.

Upon removing the documentation pack, you will find two cardboard boxes. While the smaller of the two houses a micro-USB to USB cable, the bigger one hides a two-pin wall charger.

The Honor 7 is priced at Rs 22,999 for the 16GB edition and will be up for grabs from October 15 via Flipkart. Now that we’ve got the device in our labs we'll be testing and reviewing its prowess as a daily driver. Keep watching this space for more on the Honor 7.